The purpose of this program is to elevate young adults on the Western Slope through peer to peer organizing by fostering LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT and encouraging students to become active participants in their democracy. We know that our local students are the next generation of leaders and decision-makers for Western Colorado and for our country, and we believe in the power of student voices. It is our goal to encourage local youth to view voting as a right and a responsibility, always, from the moment they are eligible to vote, and even before.
Peer-to-Peer Voter Activation
West Slope Youth Voice is a program of Western Colorado Alliance, led and directed by students, with professional support and training from staff. Originally created with the singular goal in mind to conduct peer to peer voter registration in high schools, this program has since evolved into something much larger, broader, and more powerful.
Rather than focusing only on voter registration, our interns work to educate their peers about the issues that have a direct impact on high school-aged youth and connect their ability to make change through civic participation and voting. West Slope Youth Voice goes beyond voter registration to voter activation with the hope of creating life-long engaged voters.
Classroom Presentations
We view our non-partisan, non-profit status as a vital tool in turning students out to vote. While we encourage students to get involved with the political organizations they personally support, we also understand that politics can be polarizing. Our goal is for every student, no matter party affiliation or political views, to feel like they can have a say in their democracy and provide opportunity for students to directly engage their elected leaders through direct lobbying on the issues that matter most to them. Additionally, we offer this program as an unpaid internship, so our students can list this work on professional resumes and college applications. Grouped by high school, our interns coordinate with teachers to activate their peers through classroom presentations. In these presentations, our students have three main objectives:
- To ensure all students who are eligible (age 16+) are registered or pre-registered to vote.
- To share with their peers the annually created WSYV Video and Youth Issues Report to highlight key pieces of legislation that affect them, educate them on who their West Slope legislators are, and what the major issues are that students across the Western Slope identified through an annual survey we conduct.
- To conduct a survey to identify the major issues facing students in the current year’s class so that the interns can more accurately lobby their elected leaders on the most pressing and timely issues for their peers.